Sam & Penny Short-Stories *English*

UNEXPECTED THINGS OFTEN HAPPEN - Unpredictable

Sam woke up suddenly and looked around Penny's bedroom in confusion. The daylight only shone in faintly and yet everything here smelled of her. He turned to the side and wrapped his arms around her and immediately she snuggled closer to him.

"Is it time yet?" she sighed quietly and he gave her a kiss on the forehead before looking at the clock.

"We still have 3 hours. You can sleep some more," he replied, absently stroking her arm.

"Sam, what's wrong?" she asked him after a few minutes when she sensed his restlessness and looked up at him. "Something's going through your head and don't say that everything's okay."

"I don't know, I have a strange feeling. Like something is happening that I should know about."

"Do you have something like that often?"

"No, not really. Never, to be exact."

"Then maybe we should look into it, or you'll just get cold feet," she replied with a smile as she tried to sneak out of bed, but Sam quickly pulled her back to him and wrapped her in his arms to kiss her.

"You must never believe that, my heart. I will go with you to the end of the world, past the altar and carry you on my hands until the end of my life. I want nothing more and nothing less."

"Is that a proposal?" she asked, smiling skeptically.

"I'll wrap it up a little more romantically," he replied with a smile and kissed the tip of her nose before covering her lips with his. But suddenly Penny stopped and he looked at her in surprise.

"Sam, it smells like smoke." Sam froze instantly and they jumped out of bed at the same time. Penny reached for her jogging suit and Sam jumped into his pants and pulled his shirt on.

Penny carefully tested the door handle for heat and opened the door, only to slam it shut again.

"The hallway is completely on fire, Sam. We're locked in."

"The window, Penny," Sam called, walking over, but he couldn't open it. "Do you have your phone in here?"

"No, it's downstairs," she replied and threw him a sweater that she had previously moistened with water from a bottle next to her bed before doing the same with a second one and putting it in front of her face like Sam did press it to his mouth and nose. Thick smoke was now pushing through all the cracks in the door and they knew that the fire had now reached the door.

Sam pulled at the window with all his might, but nothing moved and finally he saw what was blocking it: long nails had been driven into the sash and frame from outside.

Max. Only he could have done that. But how could they not have noticed?

He beckoned Penny over and put an arm around her as they lay on the ground to avoid the smoke that was gathering thicker and thicker above them. Everything happened so quickly that they barely had time to think about what to do next.

Sam only knew one thing: they had to get out of here. He wrapped Penny's shirt around his hand and stood up, pulling Penny with him and standing in front of her as he lunged. Before Penny could stop him, he broke the window and ran along the edge of the window with the shirt-protected arm to break off any shards before motioning for Penny to climb out. But she hadn't yet set foot on the roof of the shed at the house when she felt Sam swaying from the loss of oxygen in the room as the fire greedily consumed everything.

She immediately put her arm around his waist and let herself fall, pulling Sam with her with all the strength she could muster in her desperation, and the next moment they were thrown from the canopy by the igniting smoke, as soon as they had climbed onto the tin roof.